HOME SEPARATION.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 26 February 1913, Page 3

HOME SEPARATION.

TjHE FARMERS INTEREST.

£10,000 UUT OF £1000,000 THROWN AWAY

The question of home separation was keenly discussed at the northern end of Taranaki. The following letter writen by Mr E. Griffith, to the Teranaki Herald, may be of interest to the dairy farmers of this district.

"I think,it is only fair (says the wrtter in opening) to the dairy divison of the Department of Agriculture to say that as the causes of opposition to home separation were removed, the opposition itself also passed away, and now Mr Cuddie and his staff may be looked upon as1 ad~ advocates of home separation. More than half of the butter companies in New Zealand are either taking home separated cream or have expressed their willingness to do so. There was a time when butter made from home separated cream was expected to turn out of poorer quality than where the milk was separated at the factory or creamery, but since pasteurisation and the knowlegde of lactic ferment has come into daily use, butter is made from home separated cream equal in quality in every respect to that made from milk separated at the factory. We have many instances of this in Taranaki, Quite a quantity of home separated cream is being received by the Omata, North Taranaki, Uruti, Okau, and Inglewood Dairy Com>panies, and these factories, taken as a group, put on butter which grades as high as any other group of factories, which proves that when home separ~ ated cream is delivered daily at the factory, the quality of the butter does not suffer. The only objection to home separated cream that has ever been made is the question of quality, and now that the difficulty has passed away, the dairy farmers will be able to get the full benefit of home separation. The cost of running the aver* age creamery amounts to anything from l^d upwards per lb of butterfat, and in cases where the companies have more than one creamery, the cost of separating all the milk received by the company may safely be put down at a minimum of Id p9r lb. of butter-fat. In other words, if the cream from all farms were delivered at either the factory or the creamery, the suppliers would receive at least Id per lb, of butter-fat more than they are now getting, until all the suppliers do start separating at home, this penny will not be saved, but I pre~ diet that in a very years the creamery will be a thing of the past. With a view of encouraging home separation and enabling those farmers who separate their milk at homo, thus saving the cost to the factory, &evoral dairy companies in New Zealand pay the supplier who delivers his cream a Id per lb. of butter-fat more than those who bring their milk, because the latter put the company to the expense of separating as wel] as handling the skim milk. One noted example is the Ballance Dairy Company. Partners are realising the wisdom more and more every day of using better bulls in their berds and saving calves from their best cows, and they are also becoming, in consequence, more anxious to roar their | calves, under the best possible conditions. During the heat of the summer the skim inilk returned from the factories frequently becomes not only sour but so thick and curdled that calves will di'ink it with hesitation one day and decline it altogether another day, consequently they rapidly go back in condition at a time when they should be thriving vigorously. In my small Jersey herd at Bell Block I had considerable trouble with rny calves duriug the hot December days, owing to the natural condition uf the milk whwo returned from the factory. I installed a hand separator, and by feeding the freshly separated milk to (Continued on pape 4).